Multispectral UAV Data and GPR Survey for Archeological Anomaly Detection Supporting 3D Reconstruction

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Mar 2;23(5):2769. doi: 10.3390/s23052769.

Abstract

Archeological prospection and 3D reconstruction are increasingly combined in large archeological projects that serve both site investigation and dissemination of results. This paper describes and validates a method for using multispectral imagery captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), subsurface geophysical surveys, and stratigraphic excavations to evaluate the role of 3D semantic visualizations for the collected data. The information recorded by various methods will be experimentally reconciled using the Extended Matrix and other original open-source tools, keeping both the scientific processes that generated them and the derived data separate, transparent, and reproducible. This structured information makes immediately accessible the required variety of sources useful for interpretation and reconstructive hypotheses. The application of the methodology will use the first available data from a five-year multidisciplinary investigation project at Tres Tabernae, a Roman site near Rome, where numerous non-destructive technologies, as well as excavation campaigns, will be progressively deployed to explore the site and validate the approaches.

Keywords: 3D reconstructive modeling; Extended Matrix; ground penetrating radar; landscape archaeology; photogrammetry.

Grants and funding

No specific fund supported this research. Excavations were carried out and funded by SABAP Lazio.